Anyway, there is a ban on that sort for dramas in China, so it is unlikely that we'd have to put up with a bromance, especially in the police force, in The First Shot, which passed review.
Why has the ratings dropped? Is it because there’s no romance or your glorified “pretty” MLs?🙄. Such…
Yes, I am annoyed too at the pervading "romance expectations" in thriller dramas, and at those who come mistakenly to get disappointed because of no sugar, and just go down grading. To me, that's not justifiable. If it's because there are no "handsome" ML, it's even more unjustified since Wang Ziqi is totally pin-up material, and the others are not ugly either.
I am worming my way through 5-6-7, quite pleased with the pacing and cast, chuckling at "Mad Dog Yao" expressing fears for Gu's "tiger smile" 🤣
In episode 5, her friend Zhao XiaoGuang was having a haircut and mentioned old HK & TW music luminaries of the period (late 1990s early 2000s when the police was not equipped with computers to check fingerprints...) I had to get a refresher of those old (canto or mandopop) songs by the "four kings" (劉德華Andy Lau,張學友Jacky Cheung,黎明Leon Lai,郭富城Aaron Kwok) and had a pause listening to this playlist-sampler : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hb4ZKkmvSY , adding the top 20 from Richie Jen also mentioned by the young sleuth : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5AMiyhAxZs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aq2XS86alU&list=PLjQLC36lFhLo4cwxPDiOXFwlIHbpP2pbG Do some of you remember and have favorite songs there ?
I have posted reviews / introductions for each episode including the last ones which I watched in "raw": that might help if the wait is getting longer and you lose track of what was going on. I know we think more or less alike, paxxie: no problem!
Back to the release of episodes, I don't know what's going on with the Youku English channel which seemed to stop short at episode 12. And our usual crutches kiss and cool could not get past 14 with subs. So no other way than to watch in raw there or on original platform... until it "changes fate" to paraphrase the title of episode 15, which a helpful commenter discovered a subbed link to, revealed below in this comments section.
I hope it won't be the same for The First Shot... I'm two episodes in there, and like it.
Thrilling start, although I am not so much into fisty-fights from start and wary of Huang Jingyu, again, in a cop role. But the introduction to the team including funny "Mad Dog Yao" brings some lightness to engage into that story. I do have high hopes with Zhang Yimou backing the project, more than for Chen Kaige who was behind "The Pavilion" : can't think of any movie where the famed director ever disappointed me, since back .... when. So, sure it's more ZYM that drew me to that one, after "Escape from the Trilateral Slopes" where I had a look at that still relatively new "White Nights Theater" concept. Oh yes : Wang Ziqi. That's another actor I am following with a positive bias; including here with that period eyeglasses frame !
I have now completed that drama and posted my review. 😆
The companion piece is also mostly finished although I will be proofreading it in the coming days and adding perhaps a few things (not much). There are already 4 interesting farewell posts although I regret I could not find those of Guo Qilin and Wu Zhenyu /Francis Ng. Feel free to add links in comments after the Discussion piece if you find more of interest.
Perhaps Guo Qilin's farewell was in the very long transcript of his interview, which I may add in raw (in Chinese), as pictures like they appear on the social media page. But frankly, I don't feel up to translate the 11 pages (oof!) of posts manually, and there is no option for me to do so from posted screenshots- I lack such tech skills although might in the future enlist competent help to coach me. Here and now, it may be too much work even to screenshot those and add them into an Annex.
So, it is mostly goodbye from me as I am moving on to "The First Shot". Like announced in the "White Nights Theater" description and pinning of an article in the relevant section of the companion piece. Premiere is today September 3 for that new one. And the start is, as expected, rather thrilling, past the first fisty fight and gory scenes. (this comment was edited since 6 hrs last 😆)
The idiot childish fluffy romantic drama watcher theory. Making assumptions about why people like or dislike particular…
I don't intend to bash the romantic watchers, but it is a fact that there are a lot of people who watch dramas wishing to see exclusively (or mostly) romance, so they can gush over the chemistry as a key factor for their appreciation.... As I (repeat) stated, I don't blame them for their bias : there may be grounds for disliking a story that does not feature the (sometimes lamented by others) superimposition of fluff. What I regret is that it looks like among those (not impressively many) MDL watchers who ventured here and put it up in their list, some could be from that state of mind, and will down-rate the drama just because it did not fit their expectations of romance or female empowerment. (AND THIS is not "idiot" "sense of superiority views" but direct reflecting my listening to people discussing in conventions or reading social media opinions randomly - there are too many to compile them all, I gave the link to some Weibo collections, in the companion piece).
If you want to bash my personal opinions for stating the obvious, well... I have posted my review. If you have watched the drama to completion and have an opinion about it, I shall be interested to read yours. If you are still stuck at episode 15 waiting to have a final opinion when you have seen it complete, I hope you will enjoy the remaining ones warts and all, and keep your favorable view on the drama.
Are you trying to watch it ? How is for you, too tough to get back to after 9 days pause ? I finished it yesterday in raw, since last 6 episodes are still not subbed.
So far I have only scrolled through your write up I will go over it in more detail when I am done with this. But…
Thanks for liking and gift! I was just reworking the "animal posters" collection, which now is up to 27 -edit : 28 ! That's in promotion section. There was also a short trailer featuring the animal totems, so I made a small GIF to complement, and linked it to the full trailer which I am not sure was ever posted to YouTube ; but the link should still work. I found it while exploring the Song Jiateng Weibo page (remembering the role as antagonist he had in To The Wonder: one other of my pet dramas, 8 episodes length, refreshingly short). I have added the weekly viewing score and latest heat index. And a first farewell post from cast member. Will explore more Weibo pages in case additional messages can be added...
I have near completed the Music section ; so if you want to listen to those hip hop rap songs , know where they were inserted, and know more about the singer, there you go. I am stumped for the Burmese song though. If anyone knows it and has a link, feel free to add it ? I listened to a lot of Burmese songs but drew a blank... The other two non hip hop songs were possible to find, although one is only in the drama, as acknowledged by the singer who lives or lived in New York City for a long time and is a hardcore Bob Dylan fan. It is the ending song of episode 18. I am not quite sure in which episode Cuo-Cuo-Cuo was sung, perhaps in the last 3-4 episodes I still need to watch? https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece?pid=3118847&page=1#p3118847 (Music section)
Still slowly worming my way through last episodes, so some characters are still missing in the illustrated portrait gallery. And busy with the Black Myth Wukong game and music (theme well-known from another drama of 1986) ;-) Have a nice end of weekend !
The drama is gaining in mature audience looking for not too sappy suspense in a thriller which is set in a country beset by a powerful underworld, that is not the "romantic" triads of past HK tradition, nor with gunfights sprees like old Infernal affairs.
It topped 300 million audience and the ratings are better in China on Douban (8.3) where they are cast by very picky audiences, more picky usually than MDL viewers here.
So I suppose the rating here comes mostly from scared girls who wanted hearts and flowers, Cinderella stories with overbearing macho CEO style gang lords or providentially muscled bodyguard or undercover agent types like in funny-silly but sizzling Embrace in the Dark Night.... Yes, I have fun watching all sorts of dramas... including some that are short, full of plot holes but cult quality items, like Maid's Revenge ; while tackling all sorts of medical, youth, family, slice-of-life healing or not, thrilling mysteries in Tang and modern or time travel times, business or sports romances in the snowstorms or in CEO-lands with amber/ember eyed actors, lighter and princess e-gaming universes or torrid forbidden flower, costume "historicals", epic wuxia, xianxia, xuanhuan and fantasy devils, swords and fairies of all sorts, and sometimes boring blockbusters and long, less awaited, not necessarily happy end long ones, like A Journey To Love, or Love Like The Galaxy, which are on my most remarkable and preferred list, together with shorter 2022 Reset "time-loop with explosions" series, or totally unusual To The Wonder.
thankfully, no for most of the drama. There is an aggressive lady boss who has a not very romantic tryst which is implied and not shown much. The young protagonist is not much of a romantic either, his 2-3 attempts at hooking up with power madam also meets with extraneous problems until she finally tells him to f.. off when he just saved her life !!
15 to 21 are not subbed for other than Hanzi, at the moment. YouTube was also uploading on Youku English channel,…
you are welcome I hope the episodes will keep coming. 12 has been up for 2 days now; not sure what the calendar is there. kiss is still not subbed after 14. But if you are proficient in putonghua, or have tech capabilities with IA, it is still possible to watch to end. I am slow, don't like to watch such a drama on speed with skipping and getting impressions from preview clips -- some chores to do too -- so "only" at 18.
Where are You guys watching? I can't find episode 15 subbed anywhere!
15 to 21 are not subbed for other than Hanzi, at the moment. YouTube was also uploading on Youku English channel, but is only up to Ep.12 at the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYCUTMmX0q4&t=1394s
All episodes are out now! Slowly catching up with those I had not seen yet. And adding more stuff into the companion piece. Interestingly, one feature mentioned that the Bomo language was specially designed and crafted for the drama, so there are "Bomo language" lessons (one screen of which I copied into the companion piece for documentation). There have been games, such as a puzzle to cut out and assemble for hulinjun fans... I have also included a selection of copies from posts on Guo Qilin's super weibo page, that had some interesting information in addition to the drama Weibo.
Guo Qilin and the cast are saying their farewells to their characters already, but for those who are just starting, they'll be in for quite an adventure. Those who are not craving for romance can quickly skip the annoying part (not really best in such a drama; I found Liu Jincui and Shen Xing's scary-comedic tugs in episode 12 quite fitting: more was unneeded).
But hitherto, I found that even if some parts were tangled and murky, it was better not to skip, because some things made sense in retrospect. Perhaps the illustrated characters list in the companion piece will help remember what was important.
Ah yes, since everybody has not noticed it, just above this comments section, I am adding below the direct link. The companion piece is long, therefore, do use the Table of contents links to get to the posts where you want to know more ; each post ends with a link back to Table of contents. If you are looking for a specific character, you can check the alphabetical list which links numbers to the relevant section where these characters appear (with description, screenshot, and short bio notice for actor or actress). https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece
2 
5 
1 
2 
1 
https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece?pid=3118859&page=1#p3118859
(you will get more comprehensive answers there than if I just leave the link to the appropriate subbed YouTube version).
In episode 5, her friend Zhao XiaoGuang was having a haircut and mentioned old HK & TW music luminaries of the period (late 1990s early 2000s when the police was not equipped with computers to check fingerprints...) I had to get a refresher of those old (canto or mandopop) songs by the "four kings" (劉德華Andy Lau,張學友Jacky Cheung,黎明Leon Lai,郭富城Aaron Kwok) and had a pause listening to this playlist-sampler : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hb4ZKkmvSY , adding the top 20 from Richie Jen also mentioned by the young sleuth : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5AMiyhAxZs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aq2XS86alU&list=PLjQLC36lFhLo4cwxPDiOXFwlIHbpP2pbG Do some of you remember and have favorite songs there ?
Back to the release of episodes, I don't know what's going on with the Youku English channel which seemed to stop short at episode 12. And our usual crutches kiss and cool could not get past 14 with subs. So no other way than to watch in raw there or on original platform... until it "changes fate" to paraphrase the title of episode 15, which a helpful commenter discovered a subbed link to, revealed below in this comments section.
I hope it won't be the same for The First Shot... I'm two episodes in there, and like it.
Oh yes : Wang Ziqi. That's another actor I am following with a positive bias; including here with that period eyeglasses frame !
The companion piece is also mostly finished although I will be proofreading it in the coming days and adding perhaps a few things (not much). There are already 4 interesting farewell posts although I regret I could not find those of Guo Qilin and Wu Zhenyu /Francis Ng. Feel free to add links in comments after the Discussion piece if you find more of interest.
Perhaps Guo Qilin's farewell was in the very long transcript of his interview, which I may add in raw (in Chinese), as pictures like they appear on the social media page. But frankly, I don't feel up to translate the 11 pages (oof!) of posts manually, and there is no option for me to do so from posted screenshots- I lack such tech skills although might in the future enlist competent help to coach me. Here and now, it may be too much work even to screenshot those and add them into an Annex.
So, it is mostly goodbye from me as I am moving on to "The First Shot". Like announced in the "White Nights Theater" description and pinning of an article in the relevant section of the companion piece. Premiere is today September 3 for that new one.
And the start is, as expected, rather thrilling, past the first fisty fight and gory scenes.
(this comment was edited since 6 hrs last 😆)
As I (repeat) stated, I don't blame them for their bias : there may be grounds for disliking a story that does not feature the (sometimes lamented by others) superimposition of fluff. What I regret is that it looks like among those (not impressively many) MDL watchers who ventured here and put it up in their list, some could be from that state of mind, and will down-rate the drama just because it did not fit their expectations of romance or female empowerment. (AND THIS is not "idiot" "sense of superiority views" but direct reflecting my listening to people discussing in conventions or reading social media opinions randomly - there are too many to compile them all, I gave the link to some Weibo collections, in the companion piece).
If you want to bash my personal opinions for stating the obvious, well... I have posted my review. If you have watched the drama to completion and have an opinion about it, I shall be interested to read yours. If you are still stuck at episode 15 waiting to have a final opinion when you have seen it complete, I hope you will enjoy the remaining ones warts and all, and keep your favorable view on the drama.
I have added the weekly viewing score and latest heat index.
And a first farewell post from cast member. Will explore more Weibo pages in case additional messages can be added...
The other two non hip hop songs were possible to find, although one is only in the drama, as acknowledged by the singer who lives or lived in New York City for a long time and is a hardcore Bob Dylan fan. It is the ending song of episode 18.
I am not quite sure in which episode Cuo-Cuo-Cuo was sung, perhaps in the last 3-4 episodes I still need to watch?
https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece?pid=3118847&page=1#p3118847 (Music section)
Still slowly worming my way through last episodes, so some characters are still missing in the illustrated portrait gallery.
And busy with the Black Myth Wukong game and music (theme well-known from another drama of 1986) ;-) Have a nice end of weekend !
It topped 300 million audience and the ratings are better in China on Douban (8.3) where they are cast by very picky audiences, more picky usually than MDL viewers here.
So I suppose the rating here comes mostly from scared girls who wanted hearts and flowers, Cinderella stories with overbearing macho CEO style gang lords or providentially muscled bodyguard or undercover agent types like in funny-silly but sizzling Embrace in the Dark Night.... Yes, I have fun watching all sorts of dramas... including some that are short, full of plot holes but cult quality items, like Maid's Revenge ; while tackling all sorts of medical, youth, family, slice-of-life healing or not, thrilling mysteries in Tang and modern or time travel times, business or sports romances in the snowstorms or in CEO-lands with amber/ember eyed actors, lighter and princess e-gaming universes or torrid forbidden flower, costume "historicals", epic wuxia, xianxia, xuanhuan and fantasy devils, swords and fairies of all sorts, and sometimes boring blockbusters and long, less awaited, not necessarily happy end long ones, like A Journey To Love, or Love Like The Galaxy, which are on my most remarkable and preferred list, together with shorter 2022 Reset "time-loop with explosions" series, or totally unusual To The Wonder.
I hope the episodes will keep coming. 12 has been up for 2 days now; not sure what the calendar is there. kiss is still not subbed after 14. But if you are proficient in putonghua, or have tech capabilities with IA, it is still possible to watch to end.
I am slow, don't like to watch such a drama on speed with skipping and getting impressions from preview clips -- some chores to do too -- so "only" at 18.
YouTube was also uploading on Youku English channel, but is only up to Ep.12 at the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYCUTMmX0q4&t=1394s
Slowly catching up with those I had not seen yet. And adding more stuff into the companion piece. Interestingly, one feature mentioned that the Bomo language was specially designed and crafted for the drama, so there are "Bomo language" lessons (one screen of which I copied into the companion piece for documentation). There have been games, such as a puzzle to cut out and assemble for hulinjun fans... I have also included a selection of copies from posts on Guo Qilin's super weibo page, that had some interesting information in addition to the drama Weibo.
Guo Qilin and the cast are saying their farewells to their characters already, but for those who are just starting, they'll be in for quite an adventure. Those who are not craving for romance can quickly skip the annoying part (not really best in such a drama; I found Liu Jincui and Shen Xing's scary-comedic tugs in episode 12 quite fitting: more was unneeded).
But hitherto, I found that even if some parts were tangled and murky, it was better not to skip, because some things made sense in retrospect. Perhaps the illustrated characters list in the companion piece will help remember what was important.
Ah yes, since everybody has not noticed it, just above this comments section, I am adding below the direct link. The companion piece is long, therefore, do use the Table of contents links to get to the posts where you want to know more ; each post ends with a link back to Table of contents. If you are looking for a specific character, you can check the alphabetical list which links numbers to the relevant section where these characters appear (with description, screenshot, and short bio notice for actor or actress).
https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece
https://kisskh.at/discussions/bian-shui-wang-shi/129385-escape-from-the-triangular-slopes-companion-piece?pid=3118847&page=1#p3118847
But for those who did not see the pictures, look here :
https://kisskh.at/discussions/loving-you/120711-z-tao-playlist-and-some-xu-yiyang-thrown-in?pid=3121151&page=1#p3121151